Meet Jacob King

Ah, the delicious crushing emotion of low-fi bedroom-pop jams. Jacob King is a musician that is full of surprises. One of them being that he pulled off recording a darn right haunting EP in the very short window of 24 hours. Hail to the king baby in this very regal installment of The Family Interviews.

BREAKING WEATHER REPORT A MAD-Lib BY Jacob King

"We interrupt this SPHERICAL.broadcast to bring you a LUMINESCENT news bulletin. Hurricane BEATRIX, with gusting CYLINDERS clocked at 1,999 miles per hour, is hammering the CAREFULLY populated Florida coast. This STINKY storm has left COCKY devastation in its wake. The National SOUR CREAM Bureau reports that in Miami, windows have been blown out of fifty high-rise TWEEZERS, showering the streets below with pieces of broken BROTHERS. The howling winds have reduced a newly built BREWING.center to ALIENS. Police report a seven-ton railroad ECZEMA was lifted off its track and sent FRISBEEING. into a three-story FUNGUS. Fortunately, there have been no casualties. Nevertheless, the Governor has declared a TELEVISION of emergency and advised all BOTTLE CAPS to seek safety in a RASPBERRY shelter. And now back to your BONOBO in progress."

Would You Rather

have control over all the fish in the world or all the trees? What would you do with your new powers

I think I would prefer to be in control over the trees just because I feel like the fish live in their own little water-world. The colder parts of the year really get some people feeling down, and I feel like if the trees brought some color back, general morale would turn towards positivity. A more abstract thought: I’d like to have a house cradled within the trunk of a tree 100 meters up into the sky.

Some questions with Jacob King

You mention on your Bandcamp that your latest release “Variation” was created in 24 hours. What was that process like?

I was playing on a piano in a practice room in my school, and I came across some chords that sounded good to my ear. At that point, I turned it into this scary-sounding instrumental on GarageBand. The lyrics came out quicker than usual, and I recorded the vocals directly into my phone. I was going to just release that song as a single, and then I realized I could do some cool variations to the basic song structure. So, I recorded the piano ballad version which is fundamentally the same as the scary version, just prettier. The last track on that release is definitely influenced by early minimalist compositions and also work done by Frank Zappa in the “Musique concrète” genre. It’s a lot of terminologies to make it sound sophisticated, but it’s really just a goofy experiment.

Who is your biggest supporter throughout your musical career?

My parents have been a huge support with everything in my life. They’ve always held a lot of trust in me to know what I need to do to feel successful. Early on, they would drive me to play shows in the minivan and fun stuff like that. In terms of my solo recordings, my friend Henry has always been super supportive. He wrote an analysis about my album Cherry Blue, and I read it every once in a while to feel happy.

Do you have a different approach to making music for school versus making music for your own projects? 

The music I make in school is definitely more “through-composed,” meaning it’s physically written out and everything is chosen through a compositional process. My recording projects feel way less structured in the way they’re created; both ways have pros and cons, so I’ve been trying to bridge the gap recently.

What is your favorite fast-food chain? Why?

I have to shout out Mighty Taco! It’s for sure my favorite fast food place to eat at in Western NY, for sentimental reasons. In middle school, we’d walk there and get nachos… those were the days.

What was the subject of the first song you ever wrote?

Soon after I got my first guitar, my older brother and I wrote a song based on that Gary Busey Amazon Alexa commercial. The song’s called, “Gary Busey,” and it’s a punk rock take on Gary Busey screaming at Alexa to look up Gary Busey.

Your last three releases have come out within months of one another. Do you think you are going to keep up this pace?

I’ve always been drawn to musicians with big catalogs and people who sort of move on to new ideas. Ty Segall is probably my favorite current artist, and throughout his career he’s been called prolific in the way he drops albums and collabs and all those things. Listening to him has definitely gotten rid of a fear I used to have where it felt like: this might be the only good song I ever write, so it needs to be some big gesture. As long as I’m interested in what I’m creating, I’m happy to create at whatever pace that happens to be.

What is the best smelling thing ever?

I think more vintage-smelling perfumes on younger people is an intriguing thing. A few times in my life I’ve found myself catching a whiff of what I assumed was an older person, only to find out it’s a younger person. I’m not sure if that’s the best smelling thing ever, but it’s definitely interesting.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Don’t wait to play music or record your music! We live in a time where people who record in their bedroom win Grammys. Be an individual! Also, check out King & Co. on Instagram, we're new and ready to present happy faces.

Jacob King